Spinaephyes, Chakrabarti & Sur & Roy & Sarkar, 2017

Chakrabarti, Samiran, Sur, Surajit, Roy, Sourav & Sarkar, Sanjay, 2017, Two new genera and two new species of eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea) from North Bengal, India, Zootaxa 4236 (1), pp. 172-182 : 177-179

Spinaephyes n. gen.

Generic diagnosis. Body fusiform. Prodorsal shield with conspicuous frontal lobe and with large spines on posterolateral margins; prodorsal tubercles with scapular setae sc ahead of rear shield margin and directed anteriorly. Dorsal annuli 2, 5, 7, 9 and 11 with large spines laterally. All coxal setae present. Paraxial tibial seta lʹ on leg I absent; antaxial genual setae lʺ on leg II absent. Tarsal empodium em entire with broad base. Epigynium with longitudinal scorings. Internal genitalia with anterior apodeme slightly curved.

Type species. Spinaephyes alnus n. sp.

Species included. Spinaephyes alnus n. sp.

Etymology. The generic name Spinaephyes is masculine and is derived from the Latin word ‘ spina ’ meaning ‘thorn’and ‘ phyes ’means ‘grower’ (maker) referring to the spines present on the posterior lateral margins of the prodorsal shield.

Differential diagnosis. Among the Tegonotini genera, this genus is very close to Spinaetergum Hong and Kuang, 1989 and Wanleelagus Chandrapatya and Boczek, 1997 in having very broad opithosomal tergites with lateral spines. Spinaephyes differs from Spinaetergum by the absence of paraxial tibial seta lʹ on leg I and antaxial genual seta lʺ on leg II. Spinaephyes differs from Wanleelagus by the number and location of spines on the dorsal annuli. In the later genus large spines are present only on the first six dorsal annuli whereas in Spinaephyes these are present on the second, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh dorsal annuli. Besides, in Wanleelagus scapular seta with tubercles are present on the rear shield margin whereas in Spinaephyes these setae are ahead of the rear shield margin.